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All The Current Restructures and What It Will Cost in the Future

The purpose of this thread is to try and give people a realistic idea of what to expect in the future with cap hits and/or cuts heading into the future of the players that were recently restructured. I don't consider myself a salary cap guru by any means but I do understand the basics. When a player is cut before their guaranteed $$ is payed, not only are they payed that remaining portion of money but the prorated signing bonus of the contract is accelerated (charged all at once) to their salary cap hit for that year. The only exception would be designated June 1st cuts, which a team can use up to 2 players on, and those penalties are split over two league years.

My disclaimer - These numbers are figured from using Spotrac. Spotrac is not always right on contracts so these may be off depending on how far off Spotrac is. Once again I'm no expert so if I made a mistake just post a correction.

Ryan Cook's contract details have not made it's way to the site so I'll update it as it gets posted or if someone else beats me to it then that is OK.

DeMarcus Ware:

Cap Hit if kept:

2013 - $8.888417M
2014 - $16.638417M
2015 - $18.138417M

Cap Hit if cut:

2013: - $8.888417M
2014: - $8.776834M
2015: - $4.388417M

- His contract guarantee was $40M and he's already been paid $37.62975M of that $40M. This year he will reach that guaranteed portion and then some. Despite the '14 and '15 cap hit numbers, Ware's contract can be restructured again and/or it can be extended to spread the cap hit numbers until he retires. At first glance it looks like the Cowboys are in a bad situation those last two years but just like the Patriots did with Tom Brady, the Cowboys can do the same and guarantee his money (~34.7M) while extending him a few more years.

Miles Austin:

Cap Hit if kept:

2013 - $5.302M
2014 - $8.07M
2015 - $9.458M
2016 - $12.380M

Cap Hit if cut:

2013: - $8.71M
2014: - $6.14M
2015: - $3.57M
2016: - $1M

- Miles' contract is pretty straight forward for '13 and '14 and he's already made his guaranteed money and then some. Where the Cowboys have to decide to part ways with him is in 2015 when they can save about $6M on the cap vs keeping him on the roster. It's too early to say what will happen in '15 so I'll leave it at that.

- This is the first year that Witten has restructured his contract since 2011. '16 is the first real year that the Cowboys will see major savings by cutting him if they decide to. Another pretty straight forward contract and Witten just hit his 10th year in the league. Witten is not slowing down as he still continues to lead the team in receptions since 2007 and is Romo's safety valve.

- Carr's guaranteed money is $25.5M and the Cowboys are still quite few dollars short and hence why his cap hit if released in '13 is so high. His contract was also structured to provide cap relief in the second year so this restructure is really no surprise. What should also be no surprise here is that Carr will see the end of his contract with another restructure in the future.

Mackenzy Bernadeau:

Cap Hit if kept:

2013 - $2.039166M
2014 - $3.574166M
2015 - $4.074166M

Cap Hit if cut:

2013: - $3.972498M
2014: - $2.648332M
2015: - $1.324167M

- This restructure did come as a surprise to many because Bernadeau's contract wasn't a high dollar figure in the first place. The Cowboys simply added $0.511666M to the original cap charges every year for the remainder of the contract but were able to free up $1.535M in the process. It's not alot in the grand scheme of things but when you are able to free up that kind of money from a handful of players then it certainly helps overall.

- Livings is still owed $4.5M of guaranteed money so his '13 cap hit reflects that. After this year though he can be let go with a little less of a $3M cap hit. Just like Bernadeau, the Cowboys added $0.246250M to the cap charges for every year of the remainder of his contract.

It actually isn't scary -- you could compare this to other teams and their biggest contracts and find it very similar - just the way teams do business

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Completely disagree. Valley Blanch is a perennial leader in CAP-CLAP®.

Last year we were 2nd in the entire league in dead cap space, scalded to the tune of $30 mil in dead money. 23% of our payroll was going to guys who weren't even on the roster!!! Guys like Barber, Williams, Columbo and Davis were getting big Jerry money to play for other teams...or hang out on their sofa.

The only reason the Cowboys didn't top the ignominious dead-money list? Indy had bit the bullet and released Peyton Manning. But happily for Indy fans, the Colts purged their problems in one year, and still even made the playoffs.

Did Valley Blanch purge all our troubles after last season? Hardly. Jerry's cap management continues bleeding, one year into the next. Headed into this offseason we continued to teeter on the brink.

Where Miami enjoys $35 mil in free space and the Pats $18 mil....we sat at 18 in the red until the past few days. The Front Office is crazily trying to just survive. As per adding meaningful pieces this offseason? Fuhgettaboutit.

It actually isn't scary -- you could compare this to other teams and their biggest contracts and find it very similar - just the way teams do business

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If it's just the way teams do business, why are the Cowboys always having to create room restructuring contracts every year just to fund an offseason? They must not do business like that in Philly, New England, Green Bay and many others.

Completely disagree. Valley Blanch is a perennial leader in CAP-CLAP®.

Last year we were 2nd in the entire league in dead cap space, scalded to the tune of $30 mil in dead money. 23% of our payroll was going to guys who weren't even on the roster!!! Guys like Barber, Williams, Columbo and Davis were getting big Jerry money to play for other teams...or hang out on their sofa.

The only reason the Cowboys didn't top the ignominious dead-money list? Indy had bit the bullet and released Peyton Manning. But happily for Indy fans, the Colts purged their problems in one year, and still even made the playoffs.

Did Valley Blanch purge all our troubles after last season? Hardly. Jerry's cap management continues bleeding, one year into the next. Headed into this offseason we continued to teeter on the brink.

Where Miami enjoys $35 mil in free space and the Pats $18 mil....we sat at 18 in the red until the past few days. The Front Office is crazily trying to just survive. As per adding meaningful pieces this offseason? Fuhgettaboutit.

And as for extending Romo?

Jerry's sins are about to catch up with him (again).

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Excellent post. It does look like we are setting ourselves up for 5+ years of failure. I hope Jerry will realize the window has closed and it is time to blow up the team and start over.

Excellent post. It does look like we are setting ourselves up for 5+ years of failure. I hope Jerry will realize the window has closed and it is time to blow up the team and start over.

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This is actually pretty standard across the league, most teams restructure contracts to manipulate the salary cap.

Besides, if the truth be told, there really is no salary cap in the NFL. A team can manipulate contracts in so many ways that even if you are $20 million over, with just a couple of moves and some fancy accounting, you are good to go.

If it's just the way teams do business, why are the Cowboys always having to create room restructuring contracts every year just to fund an offseason? They must not do business like that in Philly, New England, Green Bay and many others.

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Giants did it after winning a superbowl...sorry for interrupting your Jerry bashing!

Besides, if the truth be told, there really is no salary cap in the NFL. A team can manipulate contracts in so many ways that even if you are $20 million over, with just a couple of moves and some fancy accounting, you are good to go.

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This is SOOOO not true.

Every season eight or ten teams are forced to give up some of their best talent because they haven't managed the cap (or have become a victim of their own success). It is very plausible (likely) we are going to lose one of our best players...Anthony Spencer...because of our immediate cap hell. We might very possibly lack the financial resources under the limit to tag on his butt.

If it's just the way teams do business, why are the Cowboys always having to create room restructuring contracts every year just to fund an offseason? They must not do business like that in Philly, New England, Green Bay and many others.

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The Patriots absolutely had to massage Brady's contract in order to free up cap space so that they can keep their own. They also carried about $22.2M in dead money last year.

What's funny is that Brady has been doing this since 2010:

2005 - Signed a 6 year $60M contract
2010 - Signed a 5 year extension for $78.5M
2012 - Restructured base salary from $5.75M to $950K
2013 - Signed 3 year extension for $27M

The reason we don't see every team in the NFL restructure contracts is because the lesser popular teams can't afford to do so. While the Cowboys, Patriots, Steelers, Saints, etc are restructuring contracts to free up cap space they are also handing out millions to the players. Not every team in the NFL can afford to do that and still operate on the "plus-side" of the ledger.

The Patriots absolutely had to massage Brady's contract in order to free up cap space so that they can keep their own. They also carried about $22.2M in dead money last year.

What's funny is that Brady has been doing this since 2010:

2005 - Signed a 6 year $60M contract
2010 - Signed a 5 year extension for $78.5M
2012 - Restructured base salary from $5.75M to $950K
2013 - Signed 3 year extension for $27M

The reason we don't see every team in the NFL restructure contracts is because the lesser popular teams can't afford to do so. While the Cowboys, Patriots, Steelers, Saints, etc are restructuring contracts to free up cap space they are also handing out millions to the players. Not every team in the NFL can afford to do that and still operate on the "plus-side" of the ledger.

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Exactly.

The big market teams for the most part are the teams that restructure the most because of finances.

The small market teams, like Tennessee for example, simply cannot afford to pay out millions and millons of dollars by converting salary to signing bonus in order to restructure.

So, being 35m under the cap like some teams is good when they keep turning in non winning seasons? I mean, who wouldn't rather be like the Dolphins....they have a crappy record but at least they aren't overpaying for it.

Some teams are clearly in it to make money, whether that means winning or not.

Jones pays the most money out year in and year out regardless of cap space and has never been afraid to pay money to try and improve.

The whole pushing money into the future has become status quo in the league and is more likely to occur with the teams actually trying to win a championship than the teams just happy to be part of the NFL.